David Barash says a human-ape hybrid would help us empathise with animals

Dr Barash says humanzees could be made possible by genetic engineers and would be a “terrific idea”.

He outlines a Planet of the Apes style future in his new book ‘Through a glass brightly: Using science to see our species as it really is’.

But insists the new species could help humans to stop abusing animals.

His book, which is being serialised in Nautilus magazine, says: “It is unclear whether my own imagined chimphuman will be a hybrid (produced by cross-fertilising human and non-human gametes), or a chimera, created in a laboratory via techniques of genetic manipulation. I’m betting on the latter.”

Humans and chimps share 99 per cent of the same DNA – but he human to animal relationship is still there.